representative image New Delhi: Barely 5,648 government-funded vacant houses have been allotted migrant workers Under the Affordable Rental Housing Complex (ARHC) scheme, almost four and a half years after it was launched during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is less than 7% of the 83,534 houses that were identified for the scheme when it was approved by the Cabinet.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, junior housing and urban affairs minister Tokhan Sahu informed the Upper House that five states and union territories – Gujarat, RajasthanUttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh – Of the 13 that have vacant government funded houses, they have been converted into ARHC units so far.
Except Chandigarh and Jammu and Kashmir, none of the five states have converted all the vacant houses and allotted them for rental to migrant workers.
States which have not converted even a single such vacant house, Maharashtra It has the maximum of 32,345 flats, followed by Delhi (29,112) and Uttar Pradesh (5,232). ARHC was launched as a sub-scheme of? PM Awas Yojana (U) in July 2020 “To provide a dignified life to urban migrants/poor near their place of work”.
There are two models of the scheme. Firstly, using government funded vacant houses constructed under various schemes to convert them into ARHCs through Public Private Partnership (PPP) or public agencies.
The second model is construction, operation and maintenance of ARHCs by public or private entities on their available vacant land. The Ministry informed RS that 82,273 AHRC units have been sanctioned so far and 35,425 have been completed so far; All of them are in Tamil Nadu.
